Abstract

The use of drones to capture images for journalistic purposes is in its infancy. Consequently, there exists a demand for skilled professionals to manage these devices. In this article we provide a snapshot of drone pilots in Spain and also analyze the type of drone content used in journalism. A qualitative methodology is used with 14 in-depth interviews with heads of documentation and production in TV newsrooms and drone pilots. We also obtained a sample of 43 images broadcast during a 10 month period, thanks to departments of documentation within newsrooms. We conclude that drone pilots work on a project basis to maximize profitability, i.e, the pilots are working project-by-project, rather than working full-time for one media outlet or news program. Natural disasters are among the images most commonly used, representing 72% of the drone images in broadcast news.

Abstract

This project consists in building a drone traffic generator capable of spawning random operations in a country. This document provides the guidelines to generate the operations taking into account the existing regulation, the forbidden flight zones, the number of operators and the concept of operations. Using the input parameters, the generator creates and assigns a fleet of drones to each operator introduced. Then, the generator spawns the operations and assigns them to drones, so that each operator has a fleet of drones and list of operations to perform. Furthermore, the operations have an assigned flight schedule to follow the typical workday of the country. The generator also allows visualizing the operations along the day by using the program Google Earth. Moreover, the conflicts and busy areas can also be seen with this program, so that the user can see where they occur. On the other hand, the generated operations are stored in two types of file. The first type corresponds to the XML files, which store the whole information relative to the operators, their fleet of drones and the operations performed by each one. The second type of file corresponds to the MavLink files. These files store the flight plans of all the generated operations. By using the simulator ArduPilot and the software Software in the Loop, the operations can be simulated to obtain the logs. These logs can be used to evaluate, for example, the implementation of ADS-B in drones. Finally, the generator allows changing the parametrization of routes in each simulation, as well as the number of operators and the drone models. Hence, the user is able to see the evolution of drone traffic with the generations. Moreover, the generator allows downloading CSV and XML files, where all the information relative to the generated operations, the assigned fleet of drones and the operators is collected.

Abstract

High technology is driving most of the innovation and debates in journalism today. Artificial intelligence and journalism are walking hand in hand in the current phase, defined by processes of digitization. Studies on the state of the art of such technology in the media reveal a clear tendency towards the use of more sophisticated tools. Furthermore, this research highlights how journalists are increasingly using such approaches in challenging situations. This shift has thus led to more debate on the threats and opportunities of the introduction of such technologies into a communication ecosystem that is already in need of models that can produce high-quality information. This study thus describes the state of the art on the integration of high technology into daily routines in the media.

Abstract

Urban airspace environments present exciting new opportunities for delivering drone services to an increasingly large global market, including: information gathering; package delivery; air-taxi services. A key challenge is how to model airspace environments over densely populated urban spaces, coupled with the design and development of scalable traffic management systems that may need to handle potentially hundreds to thousands of drone movements per hour. This paper explores the background to Urban unmanned traffic management (UTM), examining high-level initiatives, such as the USA’s Unmanned Air Traffic (UTM) systems and Europe’s U-Space services, as well as a number of contemporary research activities in this area. The main body of the paper describes the initial research outputs of the U-Flyte R&D group, based at Maynooth University in Ireland, who have focused on developing an integrated approach to airspace modelling and traffic management platforms for operating large drone fleets over urban environments. This work proposes pragmatic and innovative approaches to expedite the roll-out of these much-needed urban UTM solutions. These approaches include the certification of drones for urban operation, the adoption of a collaborative and democratic approach to designing urban airspace, the development of a scalable traffic management and the replacement of direct human involvement in operating drones and coordinating drone traffic with machines. The key fundamental elements of airspace architecture and traffic management for busy drone operations in urban environments are described together with initial UTM performance results from simulation studies. Document type: Article